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Is there any truth to the rumours of Nvidia's alleged upcoming next-generation GeForce 3 chips, the GeForce 3 Titanium 500 and the GeForce 3 Titanium 200?

News of the new Nvidia parts - plus a third, the GeForce 2 Titanium, and an as yet unnamed Windows XP-oriented part - broke earlier this week on Web site M3D Zone through what was claimed to be a leaked two-page PDF.

Superficially, the document appears genuine. The text contains all the appropriate trademark signs and appears to be in Nvidia house style. However, the company logo and the contact details at the bottom seem to be taken from crude screen grabs.

Then we received an email suggesting that Microsoft's own Hardware Quality Labs had inadvertently confirmed the existence of the Titanium family.

Suspicious, we had a look. Indeed, if you follow this link, you'll get a Microsoft HQL report for the GeForce 3 Titanium 200. Then again, if you follow this other link, you'll get a read-out for the GeForce 6.

Yes, we made the second one up, by editing the URL. That suggests to us the GeForce 3 Titanium 200 is a fake too - or at the very least sufficiently open to doubt to call into question this so called proof of the new Nvidia product family.

For what it's worth, here is what the PDF - produced, incidentally, by someone called Ahwang using Microsoft Word; is there anyone of that name at Nvidia, we wonder? - says about the chips:

It certainly sounds plausible enough. And we're sure Nvidia is working on updated GeForce chips for DirectX 8.1. It can't, after all, let ATI hog all the DirectX 8.1 limelight with the Radeon 8500, can it? And it's easy to see why some are leaping upon the leak as proof of the existence of GeForce 3 Pro/Ultra (the Ti 500) and GeForce 3 MX (the Ti 200) chips - as if the company isn't working on these parts. But the evidence that emerged this week is shaky.

For now, though, we're sceptical, at least until we get more information - or a better quality leak. Nvidia insiders are, of course, very welcome to drop us a line and put us in the picture. ®